"None of these guys today could carry his glove to the ball park," Brown said.

Evans, a Negro League legend and arguably one of the greatest baseball players of all-time, celebrated his 90th birthday Saturday afternoon at Golden Corral in Opelika with friends, family and a handful of former teammates.

They talked about the old days, the new days and, yes, baseball.

"I hit the ball a long way, and I could spray it all over the field," said Evans, who lives in Auburn and played catcher, first base and outfield. "If the pitcher pitched me to the outside, I'd hit it to left field. If the pitcher pitched it inside, I'd hit it to right field. If he pitched it right up the gut, I'd hit it to center field."

Evans, who played for a variety of professional and industrial league baseball teams, including the Black Barons, Kansas City Monarchs, Memphis Red Sox, Philadelphia Stars, Detroit Stars and Cleveland Buckeyes, for a whopping 28 years (he played his last game in 1965) could also be known for his contributions to the game as an eye for talent.

"I got more than 2,000 guys in the major leagues," said Evans, who served as a major league scout and instructor for many years after his playing days were through.

Deborah Barnett, his daughter who also lives in Auburn, said her father was the first black instructor for the Kansas City Royals organization.

Though Evans called out former Royal second baseman Frank White as possibly the best talent he helped groom, Barnett said her father beamed with pride to watch Ron Washington, another Evans protégé, manage the Texas Rangers to back-to-back American League championships.

Barnett said she and her father would watch the Rangers in the World Series, and he would closely follow the game, sometimes coaching through the television set.

"He kept saying, 'Ron, what did I teach you?''', Barnett said.

"It was his dream to play in the Major Leagues. But he made it as a scout. He just loved the game."

Evans was first base coach for the Louisville Red Birds, the St. Louis Cardinals' AAA affiliate, in the early 1980s and helped propel Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith into a long career in the majors.

The Major League color barrier was not broken until Jackie Robinson's famous debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Though Evans didn't have the opportunity to play Major League games, he didn't shy away from playing against Major League competition.

"We played those guys," he said, citing a number of exhibitions in the 1930s and 1940s. "They wanted to play us. The fans didn't want us to play them. That was their mentality.

"But I hit against Warren Spahn. I hit him like I owned him. I didn't back off. And when Satchel Paige (arguably the greatest Negro League pitcher of all time) picked the ball up, everybody shook.

"I had it all."

Writer Joe McAdory of the Opelika-Auburn News contributed this report.